Saturday Half-time Report

[moon_custafer]

Last weekend I read through a series of long Tumblr posts on the topics of “fandoms that have apparently died out.” I did take some issue with it— Highlander strikes me as still pretty active, and I have a feeling the poster wasn’t looking at fics or predominantly female-led fan activities. However it was interestingly to see what made the list; some things were old enough I hadn’t even really classed them as fandoms— but he had a point about the massive popularity of The Prisoner of Zenda (1894) and the Ruritanian romance genre in the early 20th century (e.g. Three Weeks (1907) is an erotic Ruritanian romance, and I would have thought Arms and the Man was a parody of the genre, but it came out the same year as Zenda. I am not sure that anti-German sentiment caused by the two World Wars totally explains the disappearance of the genre, since as he points out the PoZ plot was used by tv shows into the 1980s; Dr. Who did a version. Hell, Seeing Things did a version. Also, afaik, European/faux-European operettas were popular in North America through the ‘thirties, though they were considered a little old-fashioned (and certainly by the late ‘thirties they were starting to be pitched as nostalgia for the pre-Hitler era— well, depending on who was putting them on). Anyway, today I was looking at some videos of American college-football marching bands, and it struck me that here is the one modern North-American survival of the Ruritanian romance — the musicians are all costumed like the army of some fictional 19th-century Central-European principality.

Comments

[sovay]

“fandoms that have apparently died out.”

I agreed with them on John Christopher's Tripods trilogy: I read them in elementary school, so did most people in my age bracket, they were formative dystopias along with Monica Hughes, they seem to have been completely lost even half a generation on and I'm not sure why. It's true that they are pretty boy-focused, but I wouldn't have expected that to make such a difference in the '90's and early 2000's.

I couldn't agree at all on E.E. "Doc" Smith, since both rushthatspeaks and I read those books as children (parental libraries) and still meet people of our age who encountered them the same way.

I am not sure that anti-German sentiment caused by the two World Wars totally explains the disappearance of the genre

I think it's more that the landscape of Europe shifted so comprehensively that any further Ruritanian romances would have to be period pieces—after 1945, Europe was simply no longer covered with small monarchies into which English strangers could wander and be caught up in high swashbuckling intrigue. The essential conceit of creating fictitious mostly Central European countries never died out, but I think the majority of it was diverted into secondary-world fantasy or into more realist modes like Jan Morris' Hav or Ursula K. Le Guin's Orsinia or even Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), which explicitly runs with the romance until history stops it.

[moon_custafer]

I kept wondering if the Tripods’ popularity was geographical — I only ever encountered them when YTV in the ‘90s bought up the tv series, and didn’t realize the show was based on books (other than the obvious War of the Worlds influence).

The Grand Budapest Hotel
Now that I think of it, Duck Soup and Million Dollar Legs are kind of at the parodic end of the genre, too, aren’t they?

[sovay]

I only ever encountered them when YTV in the ‘90s bought up the tv series, and didn’t realize the show was based on books

I didn't even know about the TV series until the age of Wikipedia. I just read the books.

Now that I think of it, Duck Soup and Million Dollar Legs are kind of at the parodic end of the genre, too, aren’t they?

Absolutely. There's a Wheeler and Woolsey in that vein I'm trying to track down, too—Diplomaniacs (1933).

Call Me Madam (1950/1953) is a late example, with its intrigues and romances in tiny Lichtenburg.

[readinggeek451]

Sherwood Smith's "Coronets and Steel" (2010) is a Ruritanian romance, but it's not exactly well-known.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, though, so if you're looking for them, consider this a recommendation.

[sovay]

I thoroughly enjoyed it, though, so if you're looking for them, consider this a recommendation.

I'll check it out! Modern or historical setting?

[readinggeek451]

Modern.

There are two sequels, which are also good but not quite Ruritanian romance despite sharing a setting.

[pedanther]

The 1990s, even -- The Prisoner of Zenda, Inc. was 1996, although it also divested itself of pretty much all the Ruritanian trappings.

On the literature side, Caroline Stevermer's Galazon novels (1994-2004) are pretty Ruritanian, but they're both historical pieces and arguably secondary world fantasy -- they're set in the 1910s, and it's a version of the 1910s in which magic is a commonly acknowledged fact.

I think sovay's right about the loss of the geographical underpinnings being a major contributing factor.

[sovay]

The 1990s, even -- The Prisoner of Zenda, Inc. was 1996, although it also divested itself of pretty much all the Ruritanian trappings.

And Dave (1993) seems to have been a variant with zero actual Ruritania but the otherwise entire plot of the lookalike suddenly swapped into political intrigue and romance, which is really interesting to me. (I have not actually seen this movie, but people keep writing about it, so I keep reading about it.)

I think sovay's right about the loss of the geographical underpinnings being a major contributing factor.

Thanks.

[moon_custafer]

Also Moon Over Parador (1988), for a version with a South American rather than European setting.

It occurs to me there’s also a variant on the plot in which the protagonist’s first clue that they have a doppelgänger is when people keep trying to kidnap them, but for that the royal/VIP usually has to be visiting the protagonist’s country.

[sovay]

Also Moon Over Parador (1988), for a version with a South American rather than European setting.

Which IMDb tells me (in several different comments, because their trivia sections are disorganized and mystifyingly maintained) is a remake of something called The Magnificent Fraud (1939), which sounds like vintage Ruritania.